Doughnut machine



. D; RL BRADSHAW DOUGHNUT MACHINE oct, .29, 1940.

Filed om. 3o. 1939 2 sneek-sheet 1 NvNl ATTORNEYS v Oct.v 29, 1940- D.R. BRADSHAW v DOUGHNUT MACHINE Filed Oct. 30. 1939 INVENTOR WU l I: HI

my WM TTII Patentedv Oct. 2,9, 19740 `UMTED STATES PATENT'oFFicEDOUGHNUT MACHINE y o David Robert Bradsham'Birmingliam, Ala. f IApplication October 30, 1939, Serial No. 302,046*` This inventionArelates to doughnut machines and has for an object to provide a machineof this character having two separate stations or points where the doughhopper may be connected depending on Whether'or not the dough is to beproofed during its travelling between'the hopper and hot grea'se. h

A further object of the invention is to provide ina machine ofthischaracter means for push- D ing-the pivoted doughnut carrier platesfrom underneath the doughnuts after a pre-determined distance of theirtravel through the hot grease to permit the Vanes on the submergedconveyer to carry the doughnuts to the exit trough.

i5 A further object is to provide novel means in 'a a machine of thischaracter for iiipping a doughnut, cooked on one side by the hot grease,over on the other side to be cooked on the other side.

A further object is to vprovide means in a machine of this type forremovingthe doughnuts,

when cooked, from 'the vanes on the submerged conveyer, onto thedelivery trough.

A further nobject is to provide a machine `of this character which willbe'formed of avfew strong, simple and durable parts, which rwillv'beinexpensive to manufacture and which will not easily get outof order. fi

With the above and otherkobjects in view the invention consists ofcertain novel details of construction and combinations of partshereinafter fully described and claimed, it being understood thatvarious modifications may be resorted to within the'scope of theappended claims'without departing from the spirit or sacrificing theadvantages of the invention.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification: l

Figure'l is a longitudinal sectional view of a nut cooker in position toturn over the doughnut.

Figurev 5 is a longitudinalsectional view of the doughnut flippershowing the same in nal position of flipping thedoughnut from one sideto the other. Y

` Figure 6 isa detail cross sectional view of the doughnut llipper asupper limit of arc of 111D- ping movement.

any of Figure 7 is a cross sectional view of the dough nut flipper takenon the rline 1--1 of Figure'.

yFigure `8 is a cross sectional view takeri'on the line 8-8 of VFigure 1showing one of the doughnut carrierfplateis. 4 f v f Figure 9 isacross'sectional view'taken on the lines-i vFigure 1. a 1

Figure'lO is a detail .longitudinally sectional view of the doughnutdlsehargetrough showing the grease drain. a f 10 Figure 1l is a detailcross sectional View taken on the line II-I'I of Figure v1. i

Referring now to, the drawings in which like characters of referencedesignate similar parts in l the various views, Vv1I 0,- designatesthewarming 15 chamber and-II the cooking chamber of the doughnutmachine,`both chambers having rev spective-shelves I2 and'I3 insuperposed relation at one end for supporting respective doughreceptacles I4 and I-Thefupper doughrec'eptacle receives doughcontaining yeast, which must rise or be proofed asf-it is called, duringa certain time travel. through the heating cham ber II beforebeingsubmerged in the hot grease to be cooked. The lower :receptacle I5receives cake dough which needs no yeast and may be submitted directtothe hot grease container.

` Each of the receptacles is provided'with respective doughnut dies I6and 'I1 through which the dough is extruded by compressed air. Valvecontrolled compressedair pipes I8 and I9 enter the respective chambersnear the top' and communicate with an air pipe 20 which is connected toa compressed air tank 2| supplied by a conventional compressor 22,preferably located on a base plate 23 carried by legs 24-which supportthe cooking chamber II.`

An endless carrier is mounted in the 4warming chamber and comprises a'pair'oi parallelv endless chains 25 looped back and forth overrespective gear wheels 26, best shown in Figure 2, a pair of the gearwheels being disposed in superposed relation .o underneath the doughnutforming die I6 of upper dough receptacle I4 and another pair of thefgear `wheels being disposed in` superposed relation at'the initial endof the top of the cooking chamber II. 'Ihe shaft 2-1 Lof one of the pairof the gear wheels is equipped with a driving gear 28 which is driven bya chain drive 29 from an electric motor 30 disposed on 50 the base plate23.

At intervals along the chains 25 doughnut carrier plates 3| arepivotally mounted. As. best shown in Figures 2, 8 and 9 each carrierplate comprises a substantially rectangular base 32 55 from which risessubstantially triangular side plates 33. At the apices of the sideplates stub shafts 34 are xed and pivotally extend through respectivelinks of the chains 25. The stub shafts are equipped at the ends withrespective crank arms 35.

As each doughnut carrier plate arrives in position underneath thedoughnut die I5 of the upper dough receptacle I4 a formed doughnut isextruded onto the base 32 thereof. During travel of the chains 25 backand forth through the warming chamber I0, for a predetermined timeperiod the dough, containing yeast, will be warmed and will rise. Whenthev doughnut carrier plates arrive successively at the superposed gearwheels 26 in the entrance of the cooking chamber, each will be loweredinto the` cooking chamber below the surface of the hot grease 35 thereinand the doughnut will float off the carrier plate onto the surface ofthe grease.

Disposed in the cooking chamber I I is an endless conveyer comprising apair of parallel endless chains 31, best shown in Figures 8 and 9,connected at intervals by transversely ldisposed carrier plates 38. Thechains are-trained over gear wheels 39, the shafts of whichk arejournaled in the sides of the cookingchamber II. The shaft of one pairof gear wheels is terminally equipped with a drivegear 4I which isdriven by a chain drive 42 from the electric motor 30.

The lower reach of the endless carrier in the warming chamber I0 andtheupper reach of the endless conveyer in the cooking chamber I I travelin the same direction, as indicated bythe arrowheads in Figure 1, andvat the same speed. Consequently after the doughnut has floated off acarrier plate 3| it will be met by an advancing carrier plate 38 of theendless conveyer and advanced toward the discharge end of the machine,being cooked on the lower side in the meantime.

After travelling a short distance along with the endless conveyer eachdoughnut carrier plate 3I is lifted out of the grease. For this purposea pair of cam arms 43 having arcuate leading ends, as best shown inFigures 1 and 9, are bolted to the sides of the warming chamber at thetop thereof in position to impinge against the crank arms 35 of thedoughnut carrier plate 3I and rock the plate out of the grease on thestub shafts 34 as pivots. l

The cam arms extend upwardly and obliquely relatively to the plane ofthe upper reachy of the. endless conveyer, and also the lower reach ofthe endless carrier is likewise inclined, so that the crank arms ridealong these inclined portions of the cam arms and rock the doughnutrcarrier plate 3I of the endless carrier clear of the doughnut carrierplate 38 of the conveyer, as best shown in Figure 1. As the crank armsleave the cam arms the doughnut carrier plate 3I swings back to normalposition to receive a doughnut when it arri-ves at the die I8, or dieI1.

After travel in the hot grease for a predetermined time period tothoroughly cook the doughnut on one side it is flipped von to the otherside and travels for a similar time period in the hot grease to becooked on the other side before it is discharged from the machine. Forturning over the doughnut a ipper is provided, as best shown in Figures3 to 7, inclusive. i

The flipper comprises a grid 44 which is attached to a. pair of crankarms. 45 which are spaced apart suillciently to permit the doughnutcarrier plates 38 of the conveyor to pass therebetween, as best shown inFigure 6. The arms are xed to a rock shaft 46 which is journaled at theends in the sides of the warming chamber I I and is equipped at bothends with mutilated driving gears 41 having teeth for substantiallyone-half the periphery. The shaft 46 is equipped with a crank arm 48,best shown in Figure 3. A helical spring 49 is secured at one end to theside of the chamber and at the other end is secured to the crank arm.The spring normally holds the rock shaft 46 in position to dispose thegrid 44 underneath an advancing doughnut 50.

A pair of mutilated gears 5I are fixed to a driven shaft 52 which isjournaled in the sides of the warming chamber and is equipped at one endwith a drive gear 53 which is driven by one of the endless conveyerchains 31 as will be presently described. i

As indicated in Figures 3, 4 and 5, which show successive states of`dipping a doughnut, the mutilated gears 41 and 5I are so timed thatduring travel of a doughnut through the distance marked a in Figure 3,there will be no movement of the grid 44. The same is true while thedoughnut is travelling through the distance marked b into a positionabove the grid, as shown in Figure 4. At this point the mutilated gears5I have turned suiciently to present the teeth thereof to mesh with theteeth of the mutilated gears 41 with resultant swinging of thegrid'upperly from nip the doughnut onto the other side, as shown inFigure 5. At this point the mutilated surface of the gears 5Iadvancesonto the toothed surface of the mutilated gears 41 so that theteethv of both sets of mutilated gears are no longer in mesh and thispermitsV the spring 4 9 to contract and swing the rock shaft 4 and grid44 to normal position.

The doughnut is advanced in the hot grease by the conveyer in thecooking chamber toward a discharge chute 54, best shown in Figures 1 and10. At the upper entrance end of the discharge chute a second flipperdesignated in general by numeral 55 islocated in the path of theadvancing doughnut.. 'I'his flipper is a duplicate of the flipperpreviously described in detail and need not be further described exceptto say that after the doughnut has travelled in the grease suiiicientlyto be thoroughly cookedthe second ilipper 55 operates to flip, thedoughnut into the chute for delivery and storage in any preferredmanner.

For driving both flippers simultaneously a shaft 5G is journaled at theends ixi the sides of the cooking chamber substantially midway betweenboth flippers. The shaft is equipped with a driving gear 51 which isheld in mesh with the upper reach of the conveyer 51 through the mediumof a guide bar 58. The guide bar is located below the gear and the upperreach travels along the top face of the guide bar in meshwith the teethof the driving gear 51. A pair of gears 59 are disposed on the shaft 56and are connected by respective chain drivesv 60 with the driving gears53 which extends longitudinally of the bottom 01,15

the chamber and is. connected to a'valve -conveyer inthe hot greasecooking chamber, transtrolled fuel 'supply' pipe 66. 'I'he compressor 22is driven from the electric motor 30 through a belt drive 61.

While suding down the discharge chute 54 thecooked doughnut encounters agreasel drain '68 which is screened at the top, as shown atr69. Thegrease drain is connectedto the storage tank 62 through the medium ofa'lpipe 10.

As will be seen by referring to Figure 1 a slot.1l

is formed in the side of the cooking chamber Il4 to maintain aprefdetermined grease level therein. The slotfcommunicates with' afunnel 12 disposed on the upperend of an overiiowy pipe whichentersthetopofthe grease supplytank 62.'

Since the operation of the device has been described as a description ofthe parts progress it is thought that the invention will be fullyunderstood without further explanation.

What is claimedis:

1. In a'doughnut machine, superposed proong and hot grease cookingchambers, anendless carrier rtrained back and forth in the proongchamber, an endless conveyer in the cooking` chamber, means forselectivelyextruding doughnuts ,to

the conveyer or to the carrier, doughnut carrying" plateshinged to thecarrier, transversely disposed doughnut carrying plates on vtheconveyer, means. for driving the carrier andthe conveyer at the"` samespeed, means for pushing the doughnut'v `carrying plates of the carrierfrom beneaththeV doughnuts after a pre-determined distanceof theirtravel on the conveyer through the hot grease chamber, means forflipping the doughnuts from 4one side to the other during travel throughthe vhot grease chamber, and means for:

discharging the doughnuts from the conveyer at the end of their travelthrough the hot grease chamber.

2. `In a doughnut machine, superposed proofing and hot grease cookingchambers, an-Kendlessicar-` rier in the proongchamber, doughnut carryingplates hinged tothe lcarrier and each .having a crank arm projectingtherefrom, an endless con-v v versely disposed doughnut carrying platesfixed to the conveyer between which the carrier plates Y `1 .of theendless carrier are received, a curvedcam arm having an upwardlyinclined straight end each doughnut carrying plate of the endlesscarrier successively and rocking the carrying plate out frombetweenthe-carrier plates of the conveyer, means for driving the carrier andthe conveyer at the'samevspeed, means for iiipping the doughnuts fromoneside to the other during travel ythrough the VvhotA` grease chamber, and

means for discharging the doughnuts from the conveyer at the end-oftheir travel through the hot grease chamber.

3. In a doughnut machine, superposed proofing -and hot grease cookingchambers,`an endless carrier in the Aproofing chamber, doughnutcarrying" plates hinged to the carrierI an endless conveyer in the hotgrease cooking' chamber,y transversely disposed doughnutv carryingplatesfixed to the conveyer between which the carrier plates ofthe endlesscarrier are received, means for pushing the hingeddoughnut carrying,plates of the car'- rier from beneath the Adoughnuts after. a.pre-despeed, aipper havingy a grid pivotally mounted in the hot greasechamber and spring pressed to be disposed underneath the path of travelof the timed to swing the iiipper grid upwardly in an .arcagainstthetension of the said spring and turn the doughnuts successively toinvertedposition during travel through the hot grease cham- Ytermin'eddistance`v of their travel on theconveyer j through the.' hot greasechamber, means for drivingthe conveyer and the carrier at the sameJdoughnuts in thev conveyenmutilated gear means a ber, means fordrivingsaid mutilated gear means from they conveyer, and means for dischargingAthe doughnuts from the conveyer at the end of their travel through thehot grease chamber.

DAVID ROBERT lBRADSHAW.

